liuzhou

It has been an odd day. At 4:30 pm, three people from the local government turned up at my home with two boxes of mooncakes for me! Mid-Autumn Festival is this weekend and is the traditional time to eat mooncakes. These are an upmarket version as sold in the local Ramada hotel. I'll add more detail when I actually eat one or eight! Then at 5:45 my phone rang. "Delivery Service. Are you at home?" Somewhat baffled I answered the door to a courier bearing three parcels. All addressed to me. The first was followed by a bunch of bunches of grapes and last but not least 14 kiwi fruit. Sent to me as a gift from an old friend. Again to mark the festival! Happy day! I know which I will enjoy the most. Durian Ice Mooncakes!

My party piece is using two pairs of chopsticks simultaneously, one in each hand, and eating twice as quickly as everyone else.

This is my bone cleaver. 690 grams as opposed to 350 grams of my regular Chinese cooks' knife. The bone cleaver has cut through everything I've given it. It does need a regular touch up with the steel, though.

I did consider that. But it is about 38℃ here and the fridges are full! I'm sleeping in one of them!

I bought me some smoked duck breasts. Decided to try one. Very pleasant. Five more in freezer.

Not at all weird. All Chinese 菜刀 are the same. I don't know what you are used to but it ain't these!

It will surprise no one, I'm sure, but here every market and supermarket has 4 or 5 types of bean sprouts. Soy bean sprouts and mung bean sprouts are the most common, but I can usually find alfalfa sprouts, peanut sprouts and pea sprouts. Sometimes chickpea/garbanzo sprouts. The good news for those not lucky enough to live beside me (😁), they are all easy to propogate at home.

No. By far, most of the weight is in the blade.

Is this a snack or a starter with a long break until the main course arrived? Could be either. Hot smoked sturgeon (served cold) with canned Portuguese sardines and pickled lime. Served with bread and butter.

The blade is 205 mm long and it weighs 449 grams. A bone cutting cleaver woild be heavier, yes.

Today I acquired myself a new 菜刀 (cài dāo), literally vegetable knife, but 菜 (cài) is also used to just mean 'food'. Standard Chinese kitchen knife, but a good one. This is to replace an old one I've had for about 20 years and never really liked.

There is a more complete, but later edition available as a free e-book in various formats here.

老友粉 (lǎo yǒu fěn), literally 'Old Friend Noodles', a specialty of Nanning, capital of Guangxi.

The Art of Cookery, 1747 They are still working on this, but still useful.

Lunch today was horrible. That's all you need to know. Horrible and inedible! What little went into my mouth was spat out in seconds. No pictures, obvously.

I am no food historian, just a casual reader. However, I am certain that while China is renowned (often incorrectly) for steaming, it certainly doesn't own it. Cultures all over the world use it to some extent. The ancient Romans steamed food and they sure didn't learn it from China. Iceland and New Zealand both used geothermal springs to steam over. Modern Italy independently came up up with al cartoccio, better known in French as en papillote - a combination of baking and steaming, also used in China with fish as 纸包鱼 (zhǐ bāo yú - literally 'paper bag fish'). Haggis is steamed in Scotland. People have the same ideas over and over again.

Dalingshan, Guangdong - Cantonese roast goose leg rice noodles. Champion indeed.

Well, I am in China. Not California, home of dim sum.

35-38℃ is normal. I've never eaten dim sum on HK. I can only talk about what I have seen and eaten here. But, as I said, Cantonese food isn't my favourite. Sadly the city is about 50% Cantonese!

When in the year was that? I more often see spring rolls at the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). I'm not sayig they never appear as dim sum, but not that regularly round here.

Staff note: This post and the repsonses to it have been moved from the Dim Sum, San Francisco topic, to maintain focus. I rarely eat dim sum these days. Cantonese food is way down my list of preferred cuisines in China. However, when I have had it, it has never been for lunch. In fact, the dim sum places here are nearly all shutting shop at around 11 am. Yum cha, the event at which dim sum is traditionally eaten is a strictly breakfast or brunch event. They open as early as 5 am and are packed. Also very noisy. Chinese people like a good shout with their breakfast. Also, I don't recall ever seeing chow mein being served with dim sum. Not spring rolls often, either. Especially not now. Spring has long gone!

Many old cookbooks have been republished. De Re Coquinaria, aka Apicius, compiled in the 5th century is widely available in English. It can even be downloaded free as an e-book from here, although there are better, more modern translations available as tree books from the usual bookstores. Amazon has several versions. This one (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is not complete, but has a good selection which can be recreated easily.

Plain rice is never salted here in China). It is considered to be a neutral canvas for the other dishes.

The Be-Ro Cookbook is still being published in new editions. I have my mother's from the 1950s and use it for some things. But, I also use much older cookbooks going back to the 5th C AD .